


Break Your Halo

by bonsaiboi



Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Depression, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Ghost Hunters, High School, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, I can't write short things apparently, I have a huge soft spot for travis, I used to think this was going to be a oneshot, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It's pretty close to canon but also not, JOKES ON ME, Larry hates Travis at first but then is kinda Sals wingman, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Post-High School, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, SLOW TO UPDATE I WRITE THIS WHEN IM STUCK ON MY OTHER FICS :000, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, Suicide Attempt, Theyre all rlly soft, okay also this is gonna be longer than I thought
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2019-12-06 21:20:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18225563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bonsaiboi/pseuds/bonsaiboi
Summary: Travis Phelps has been a nuisance to Sal since practically the beginning of time at this point. Four years in hell with a fucking pissbaby who feels the need to bully he and his friends consistently, no thanks! Yet, there's a lot more to Travis then his friends initially thought as Sal and Travis are thrown headfirst into each other's lives at a speed neither of them could have ever been ready for.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> wow okay, this was initially supposed to be a one-shot and then I started writing it and immediately was like "oh, oh no, there's so much more I could do with this..." and so now I have a lot of chapters planned and like half-written so whoops.  
> also trigger warnings for child-abuse (not really graphic for the most part), suicide attempt, anxiety and panic attacks, homophobia and homophobic slurs, as well as some graphic violence. I'll try to put relevant trigger warning's at the beginning of chapters.  
> Also tbh I'm equal amounts a Sal/Larry shipper as much as I am Travis/Sal but my first Sally Face fic needed to be about this boy because I have suCH a soft spot for him cuz I relate to him in a lot of ways that I'm n o t going to unpack for y'all, but yea let's fucking go!

Travis Phelps had been a fucking bitch since the first day Sal Fisher stepped into Nockfell high. 

Okay, maybe there was a bit of time before Travis had started to target him and his friends, but as far as Sal could remember, for the past three years Travis Phelps had been nothing more than a shit person. 

Sal was definitely the most forgiving one in his close group of friends when it came to Travis, he knew that something had to be going on in the other boy’s home life that made him so aggressive and covered in new injuries every week. Sadly, in Nockfell, everybody noticed that something was going on with the Phelps family, but nobody did shit to help. There was some unspoken rule in Nockfell that turning a blind eye was what was going to keep their town safe and normal. It had bothered Sal a lot when he first came to Nockfell. The police didn’t give a shit, the people would turn away with no questions, and every time Sal and his friends got closer to the truth another cover up would push them even further back.

Frustrating was the best word to describe what living in Nockfell was like. 

Frustrating and incredibly weird. Weird as all shit. Sure, ghosts and demon hunting had to be every teenage boys dream at some point, but it got to be a lot after a while--especially when it was paired with murder, nightmares, and intensely unsettling discoveries about lunch meat. 

It became all the more frustrating when Sal looked up from his notebook to find Travis glaring over at him. He really had no idea what he had done to get the blonde to hate him this much--besides maybe being a ‘faggot’--but Travis didn’t strike him as the type to actually hate him for that, it was some fucked up sense of oppressive religion that had the other boy so amped up about Sal’s apparent sexuality. Sal had never been religious, so it was really confusing to him that something like that could get someone to hate someone so much for something they couldn’t control. 

So Travis Phelps was a problem--not as much of a major problem as demon infestation, but enough of a problem to keep Sal on his toes most days. He couldn’t count the amount of times his friends had gotten into fights with Travis, and today, the blonde was giving off an especially murderous vibe.

Really, if they could just talk it out, Sal was confident that he wouldn’t hate Travis at all. It was hard to hate someone who held themselves like a wounded animal everyday--someone who came to school every day looking more shattered than the last.

The new bruise around Travis’s eye wasn’t pleasant to look at as Sal lifted his head to make eye contact with the blonde from across the classroom. Travis looked away, unable to read anything from Sal’s blank mask. 

Sal focused back on the teacher as she started handing out a sheet for their next assignment. “This is going to be a partnered project” She started. Sal immediately turned in his seat enough to make eye contact with Larry. “You will be writing a short story--this will be your final project for the semester so while you have two months until it’s due, I would recommend getting started with your partner as soon as you can. This will be about whatever you want but should aim to prove you’ve learned at least 3 of the major literary terms we’ve covered--” She continued to rattle off literary concepts and terms they should prove they knew and how long the project should be. Sal wasn’t too worried, he’d probably be paired with one of his friends--most of the teachers had a soft spot for him in that way. 

She started rattling off pairs for the project. Larry was wiggling his eyebrows at Sal.

“Larry Johnson and Todd Morrison,”

Both of the boys deflated a bit. Sal shot a look to where Ash was sitting--maybe Chug would be his partner?

“Sal Fisher and Travis Phelps,”

Sal snapped his head to stare at Travis with wide eyes--the other boy didn’t look much better, in fact Sal could’ve sworn he’d gone a shade paler. 

Class was dismissed minutes later for lunch. Sal packed up his things in a daze, mind racing. He couldn't fucking work with Travis! They hated each other--Travis was just going to be a dick to him the whole time--and honestly Sal wouldn’t be surprised if he actually got hurt by the end of this.

Larry was by his side in an instant. “Yo, what the actual fuck?” He shot a look to where Travis was walking out the door quickly ahead of them. “What. The. Fuck. This is unbelievable, you can’t actually be expected to work with  _ him! _ ”

“I don’t know man,” Sal said softly, he didn’t feel good, this couldn’t be happening. He’d once expressed to Travis through a stall that if the other boy had ever needed a friend, Sal would be there, but since then Travis had only become worse. As soon as he knew Sal still cared, he’d started to be even more outwardly violent and angry towards Sal and his friends.

Every time someone tried to help Travis he just pulled further away. It felt like there was no way to reach him. Maybe this would give Sal a chance to find out more about him, but also it could put him in a bad situation, he was scared of Travis hurting him!

He was quiet as they headed to lunch together. Sal had started packing his own lunches since the bologna incident and so had most of his friends. They had decided not to tell anyone about Mrs. Packerton’s little factory of death, instead with her recent death, the school would start getting bologna from somewhere else that hopefully didn’t believe in cannibalism. 

Larry still had to sit in the library during bologna days so he didn’t vomit. The gang had taken to finding a lot of places to go to be away from the cafeteria during lunch. 

Sal and his friends made their way over to Chug and Maple’s table that day. Sal was still having trouble breathing. He wasn’t able to wrap his head around the fact that  _ Travis _ of all people was supposed to work with him. 

Sal looked over to where Travis was sitting alone. The other boy was staring at his food, barely even picking at it. He was probably just as unhappy with the situation as Sal was. 

Travis looked up to meet Sal’s eyes for a moment before quickly looking back down at his food.

Lunch went by pretty fast once Larry began to distract Sal from staring over at where Travis was sitting. He was thankful for the distractions, but felt his stomach sink again as soon as the bell rang. He darted out into the hall to his locker so he could grab the stuff he needed for his next class. 

Travis was at his own locker, fiddling anxiously with the lock. He got it open a second before Sal unlocked his. The silence in the hallway was really too much. He knew they would have to talk… eventually. Sal bit his bottom lip under his mask, contemplating how to go about the situation at hand. 

Typically, he was the type of person who liked to face his problems head on with a calm, thought-out approach. He’d been living in a haunted apartment for three years with that logic and it had worked out for him so far. This situation shouldn’t be that much different, he just needed to approach it calmly. He’d talked with Travis before, mostly with a bathroom stall between them, and… he wasn’t a bad person, he was just hurting. 

Larry didn’t seem to understand that in the same way that Sal did, but he’d never hated Travis. 

“Hey--” Sal started, approaching Travis.

He flinched, slamming his locker closed a little too hard as Sal startled him. That was something he noticed about Travis often, he was really jumpy and extremely easy to startle--not that Sal ever  _ tried _ to scare him, it just happened.

Travis also had the tendency to get defensive and violent when he was startled. Sal had always had the suspicion that something was going on in Travis’s home life but he’d never had a chance to confirm it. Travis certainly didn’t talk about it, the only thing he’d gotten out of the other boy was that his family was extremely intense about religion.

Sal raised his hands as what he hoped to be a sign that he came in peace. Travis was staring at him like a deer caught in headlights.

“Uh, hi?” The blonde boy finally responded, pushing the books he had grabbed into his bag. He wasn’t looking at Sal anymore and it seemed like it was on purpose.

“The project,” Sal said dumbly. “What do you want to do about it?”

“Oh, I’m not sure--”

“We’re going to have to work on it outside of school,” Sal said firmly. He wanted it out there for both of them to know: they would have to at least try to get along. 

Travis nodded, biting his bottom lip. “I don’t think you could come to my house, so… we could meet in the library here--”

“You can just walk home with me sometimes, the apartment complex I live in isn’t far from here. We could work on it there.”

“O-okay,”

“Cuz who wants to spend more time than we have to in this dump?” Sal continued, he tried his best to sound lighthearted about their situation, it wouldn’t help to let Travis know that he was dreading this just as much as the other boy probably was. “Plus, my place has snacks, and like, good music,”

“Right,” Travis replied, he looked nervous. “When?”

“Tomorrow?” 

“Sure,”

“Cool,” Sal replied. “See ya,” with that he took off down the hallway to meet up with his friends before the lunch hour was over, leaving Travis standing at his locker, anxiety boiling in his chest.

 

Travis couldn’t stop thinking about Sal the entire way home. He was still mildly pissed off that they had been paired together--because really, he would be absolutely fine if he never had to acknowledge his overly complicated feelings about Sal for the rest of his life--but more than angry, Travis was just scared. 

He knew that Sal’s friends hated him… and Sal probably did too, he was just better at not showing it or something.

Still, Sal had found him in the bathroom and seemed like he actually cared about how Travis was feeling--it didn’t make sense because Travis had been  _ awful _ to Sal for years now and every time Sal tried to help Travis had made it  _ very  _ clear that he didn’t want help. What was there to even help? It’s not like Sal could magically make the pressure of his father go away, it’s not like Sal could fix the dysfunction that had been going on for years. 

As much as Travis felt like everyone knew  _ why _ he came to school bruised and busted up so often, no one had ever said anything--no one even tried to step in. He couldn’t rely on anyone else.

_ It’s what you deserve. _

Travis sighed. 

The bus dropped him off down the street from his house. The Phelps lived in small house next to the ministry and down the road from the Neveroak Cemetery. Travis pause outside his driveway to quickly check that no one had mess with the large sign that stated  _ GOD SEES ALL _ sitting on the edge of their lawn. People had changed the letters in there before, it made his dad really mad whenever it happened, so Travis had taken to making sure everything was in order before he continued on to the house. 

When he got up to his house he opened the door as quietly as he could, kicking off his shoes and heading directly towards his room. He passed by the kitchen where his mom was cooking. 

“Travis? Is that you?” She called as he passed by. He stopped, turning with a fake smile. 

“Yea, hi mom,” He replied, gripping the straps of his backpack tightly as he scanned the living room warily.

“Your father’s going to be home late,” She said absently. “Just make sure your room is cleaned up, okay?”

“Okay,” Travis swallowed. “Oh, I’m going to someone’s house after school tomorrow to work on a group project,” His mom nodded with a small frown.

“Who’s house?”

Travis blinked, he knew his parents might recognize Sal’s name… only because the amount of calls they’d gotten about him getting into fights at school. “Todd…” Travis lied. “He’s really smart,” 

“Of course, I’ll tell your father,” 

“Thanks, mom.” With that he slipped out of the kitchen and down the hall to his room. Quietly, he closed the door and leaned against it, listening. A moment later he could tell his mom had gone back to what she was doing. He was in the clear for now at least.

He cleaned up the clothes that were on his floor and reorganized his bookshelf a bit before starting on homework.

It took him a bit to recognize the mistake he’d made with his mom.  _ Shit! _ Travis sat up a bit straighter.  _ Todd is gay…  _

He tried to shake off the sudden wave of nerves. There was no way his dad would know, right? News traveled fast in Nockfell, but maybe it wasn’t a topic of conversation. He hoped to god that no one was talking. But he couldn’t tell them he was seeing Sal for… a lot of reasons really. First off, he’d been getting in trouble for picking fights with Sal since freshman year. Second, his dad was definitely aware of who Sal was, he’d picked up Travis a number of times from school, and for some reason he always noticed Sally Face--then again, Sal was hard to  _ not _ notice.

_ “Who’s that?” His father asked, glaring in the direction of teenagers laughing outside of the school. Travis looked over, lump hard in his throat. _

_ “Sal,” Travis replied as casually as he could, trying to ignore the way Sal’s pigtails bounced as he jokingly spun around for his friends, skirt spinning with him.  _

_ “Why the fuck is she wearing that mask?” _

_ Travis flinched. “Sal’s a guy… and it’s a prosthetic, I think,” _

_ His dad’s face shifted into a look that Travis wasn’t ever fond of--anger, hatred--it made a shiver run down his spine. “You stay away from freaks like that, you hear me, boy?” Travis could only nod.  _

_ He shot one last look at Sal’s gang as his father pulled out of the school parking lot, heart sinking hard in his chest.  _

It would be so much easier if he could hate all of them in the same way that his father did, but instead Travis was stuck knowing he wanted to be like them--he wanted nothing more than to be part of their group. They all were so accepting and open with each other, they all belonged and it made his chest ache with jealousy to know that they didn’t have to be afraid of who they were together.

Travis tried to ignore the wave of sadness that washed over him as he tried to focus on his Government textbook. 

He just wanted everything to be better than it was now but he was always going to be trapped in a faith that hated him for who he was and a family who might actually kill him if he tried to be anything else but the perfect religious son they’d raised.

He wiped his eyes and took a deep, hard breath before opening his notebook and finishing the notes from earlier.

There wasn’t another life out there for him and crying wasn’t going to change anything about his situation. It didn’t matter how much he  _ wanted  _ it, he couldn’t have it.

It was better not to think about it at all. 

  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhh TW for references to abuse

The next day came and Travis couldn’t shake the overwhelming sense of unease that had settled over him the night before. He woke up feeling queasy from anxiety and barely said a word to his family before going to put on his shoes. He was too restless to eat breakfast. 

The thought of spending time with Sal outside of school was somehow both exciting and the most terrifying thing that could happen to Travis. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Travis had been interested in Sal since the first day they had crossed paths--which was another problem since Travis knew that his feelings were wrong. The things he felt for Sal were gross and unnatural. He wasn’t allowed to feel that way about another boy. Which was why he couldn’t get the tight, nauseous feeling out of his stomach as he thought about the other boy. His heart was pounding hard in his chest. 

He also felt a hard sense of guilt as he waited at the bus stop. He’d been nothing but a complete nuisance to Sal. Travis had harrassed him and his friends, hurt them, and had been an overall unpleasant presence in their lives for all of high school. Sure, they had retaliated--everyone except for Sal--for some reason, Sal had always wanted to give Travis another chance. He’d offered Travis  _ so many _ opportunities to try to be friends instead of whatever petty hate drove the barrier between them.

 

_ “Is your dad pushing these beliefs on you?” Sal asked gently. Travis leaned his head against the cool tile of the bathroom wall, unable to find a response. His legs were pulled up to his chest as tears continued down his face. _

_ “Travis?” _

_ “What.” He asked flatly. He didn’t know why Sal even tried at this point. _

_ “We could be friends, you know?” _

_ “Unlikely,”  _

_ Sal snorted. He was leaning against the stall door, Travis could see those stupid blue converse and ripped red jeans poking through under the gap. _

_ “C’mon man, no one hates you… I think you don’t understand us and that scares you… but if you ever need a friend, I’m here, okay?” _

_ Travis paused, his throat clogging up. Tears were threatening to spill down his face again. “Why?” _

_ “I know what it’s like to feel alone.” Sal stepped away from the bathroom stall. “I gotta go, but I mean what I said.” _

_ With that he was gone, leaving Travis to choke back tears, alone again. _

 

He shook himself as the bus arrived at the end of the street. Travis climbed on, quickly finding a seat. 

It wasn’t really a surprise that he didn’t have any friends. He was known for anger outburst and most people didn’t want to be friends with the son of the towns priest. Not to mention, the Phelps ministry was known for being intense--and Travis was grouped in with that assumption everywhere he went. He couldn’t show weakness, he couldn’t reflect badly on his family.

By the time the bus made it to school, Travis was already exhausted from overthinking.

He didn’t know how he was supposed to act around Sal. Ideally, they could just get this stupid project over with and then Travis could go back to being his sad, lonely self and avoid Sally Face until the end of the year. He was close to graduating after all, and then he would start to work with his dad and hopefully never see Sal again.

That was best case scenario.

Worst case scenario was that Travis would let his emotions get the best of him and actually  _ enjoy _ being around Sal.

He really couldn’t afford that. 

A few minutes later he was making his way from his locker to his first class, mind wandering far from where he was supposed to be. 

Travis bumped into someone on accident. He was about to apologize when he felt a hard shove land on him.

“Watch it Phelps!” Travis stumbled a few steps before whipping around to find Larry fucking Johnson glaring at him.

“Don’t fucking touch me,” Travis spat. “Fuck you, Johnson,” 

Larry looked like he was about to retaliate but was quickly pulled away by Ash calling his name from down the hall. He quickly flipped Travis off before continuing down the hallway. Travis watched him go with a glare.

That was the problem with being partners with Sal for this project: Sal seemed fine with Travis for some unexplainable reason, but Sal’s friends were another story. Ash had yet to look at him with anything less than complete disgust, Larry and him had gotten into more fights than he could count, and Todd just regarded him with an icy exterior most days. 

As much as Travis would love to be skipping through flower fields with the Freak Gang, he had already made it explicitly clear how he felt about them and they had done the same.

Travis turned, trying not to feel livid as he found his way to his locker. God, he wanted to beat the shit out of that guy! Who could even possibly find Larry likeable? That guy always smelled like weed and was fucking gross.

He shoved books into his bag, glaring at them the whole time. So much for having an okay day--it seemed like the entire universe was getting a kick out of making Travis’s life absolute fucking hell. He already had enough to deal with at home.

Shit, his eyes were burning with angry tears. He couldn’t cry here, he shouldn’t be crying at all! He was so fucking  _ weak! _

Travis took a deep, hard breath, forcing through the tightness in his lungs. He couldn’t do this here. Fuck, he needed to get to class.

His first two classes passed by in a haze of barely paying attention and trying to find ways to distract himself from the knot that had formed in his gut. 

By English, Travis was dreading the entire day like there was no tomorrow. He didn’t know how he was supposed to act around Sal now! 

He tried to take notes during the lecture but only managed to come out of it with maybe half of the information that had been covered and a margin filled with distracted doodles.

“Alright, so I want you to get together with your partner now to start discussing your project. The last ten minutes of class will be dedicated to this most days and I’ve also worked in some full work days,” The teacher said. She was all smiles and excitement while Travis felt his stomach drop. He glanced over at Sal, who wasn’t making a move to come sit with Travis--god this was humiliating, he was definitely going to wait for Travis to come to him. 

Travis grabbed his backpack and moved over to sit in the vacated desk next to Sal, not looking at the other boy as he sat down. He glanced at Sal again quickly.

The truth was, as much as he wanted to get along with Sal, there was still a part of him that was deeply unsettled by Sal Fisher. It was impossible to read that boy. Travis couldn’t ever tell what he was thinking with the prosthetic covering his face. Sure he could see Sal’s eyes, but they were icy and just as difficult to read, plus, he wasn’t even sure that they were both real.

“Hi,” Travis said, keeping his voice as neutral as possible.

“Hi,” Sal replied, equally as flat. Great, they probably weren’t gonna get very far with this approach.

“So, uh, what do you think we should, uh, write about?” Travis tried, he was really letting his hesitation show, that wasn’t very cool or confident of him.

A shrug from Sal. “I feel like we’re interested in very different things,”

“What makes you say that?” Travis winced at his question--the answer was pretty clear since they’d been toe-to-toe for the last four years.

“You’re all about religion shit and I’m all about dark horror, ghosts, and shit,” Sal replied. 

“Okay, first off, I’m not  _ that _ into religion--”

“Please, you’ve spouted shit about your god and the bible for years, Trav,” Sal rolled his eyes. The nickname immediately got under his skin. 

“Don’t call me that,”

“What, Trav?”

“Yea,” Travis glared down at his notebook.

“Why not?”

_ “Come here, Trav,” His dad called. Travis couldn’t have been older than five. His dad hadn’t always been a monster, in fact that day had been perfect. _

_ Travis bounded over, a huge grin on his face. HIs dad had been sifting through the rocks next to the lake with him. He handed Travis a large shiny rock he found. He lit up immediately, pocketing it.  _

_ “There ya go, Trav, for your collection,” HIs dad seemed proud of him for having that collection, it was his pride and joy as a kid. _

_ “Do you really have to go away this weekend, Dad?” Travis asked with a pout, “I wanna come with!”  _

_ “Maybe next time, buddy, this won’t be my last time going to Jersey, bud,” The smile had been warm, kind even. _

_ Still, his dad had come back the next week different, changed. Like the world had collapsed in on him and suddenly there was no more rock hunting or days by the lake.  _

_ Everything had changed-- _

“Just don’t, okay?” Travis snapped. He couldn’t look at Sal, he was afraid that the other boy would see just how much that nickname was affecting him. He didn’t need this right now, god he was pathetic.

“Jesus, fine,” Sal raised his hands defensively. “We aren’t getting anywhere with this,”

“Wow, wonder why,” Travis replied with a roll of his eyes.

“You’re kinda impossible, you know?”

“Thanks,” 

Sal let out a breath of exasperation. “Okay fine, just think about it and we can talk more later,” He opened his notebook and went back to whatever he’d been drawing before. Travis stared at his desk, trying not to feel angry with Sal. 

This was still one of the worst things that could have happened to him.

_ “I know you’re in there, Trav, open the  _ goddamn  _ door!”  _

_ Travis sobbed quietly, holding his bleeding nose. He couldn’t move, the fear coursing through him was holding him in place. God what had he even done wrong? He couldn’t remember his dad ever looking at him with that much venom before.  _

_ This was his fault. Somehow this was Travis’s fault. _

_ He couldn’t breathe--he couldn’t move. _

“Travis?” 

Travis snapped back again, throwing Sal a quick glance. The other boy’s eyes were glistening with something Travis couldn’t quite name. Concern?

“The bell rang--” Sal was reaching out--god what was he doing?

“Right,” Travis jerked away, grabbing his stuff and moving out of range. Sal looked confused.

“You alright? You were totally zoned out there--”

“I’m fine,” Travis said quickly. “See ya later--” With that he was heading for the door, leaving Sal behind as he practically ran towards the bathrooms.

God he just needed to cry.

He locked himself in a stall, breathing hard, tears spilled down his face steadily. 

Fuck, he was pathetic.


End file.
